A Person From the Past
by cavanaugh-girl
Summary: Mostly AU. Nikita is faced with a person she used to know and surprisingly Sections seems ok with it. Ok Summary is bad, story is better I hope. Let me know!
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I don't own them…**_

_**A/N: This is my first LFN fic, so far I've only written Crossing Jordan fics, which by the way is a must see show so check it out if you already haven't. Would love reviews! Time wise think early season 2 after Nikita has been brought back into Section and after the whole Jurgen story line. **_

_At the Section briefing_

"The man you will bring is Saman Bakshi. He is Red Cell. We want him alive, the details are on your panels." As soon as Operations gave his briefing he retreated to the perch.

Nikita was with Walter getting her inventory for the mission when Michael came up behind them.

"Nikita." With Michael there was never a question, or request. He just said your name and expected you to know immediately what he wanted by taking one look at him. This usually worked because he was widely feared at Section. Then of course Nikita had come around and changed all that. He had changed, whether he wanted to admit it or not. She had changed him. It wasn't often that he showed it and it was even rarer that he showed it to Nikita.

"Nikita," he repeated when she didn't respond.

"Yes," she finally said as she turned to face him. Her eyes spoke volumes; she was testing him just like he was testing her. She stood her ground, if he wanted something from her he'd have to say it.

"Madeline's office," he paused. She had noticed that he liked to pause at every other sentence. "She needs to see you."

"All right." _That's all?_ She thought to herself as she went to see Madeline.

While Michael stayed with Walter to get his inventory Nikita set out to find out what Madeline wanted.

"Hello Nikita, come in." Madeline could appear very friendly and open but Nikita had seen the flip side of that already and she knew to be cautious of her.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked as she sat down in front of her

"We've stumbled upon a person from your past." Straight to business as she was used to from Madeline.

"A person from my past…what does that mean?" she hated Section's cryptology. There was a dual meaning to everything said and done here.

"We've recruited someone who as it turns out has a connection to you. Normally we wouldn't keep him alive but he's excelled in his performance in the short period he's been here. That has only happened once in Section's history before. I hope that you will not let this affect your work…Nikita that will be all." Madeline said as she turned back to her screen as a sign that tells you can leave now.

She took the information in and left. A person from her past. That was all she was told. She wasn't told the identity of this person of the past. She would have to dig deeper later as the mission was about to load and they had to leave.

Michael was standing at this usual spot before takeoff. She never knew why he felt the need to stand there as people loaded the van. At one point in time she thought it was for her but that…she just couldn't think like that.

They shared a look before getting in. That was usually the way it went. The mission would start, she'd get a look from him and that was that. She couldn't help but feel that there was something more to it than usual. Some warning of some kind.

The mission went as planned and they returned to Section with only one wounded, a success in the eyes of Section. After the debrief Nikita decided to visit Michael in his office. The door was open so she waltzed right in and sat down in the chair opposite him. The way it usually went was he'd type up whatever he was working on and then came the _yes?_ She decided to initiate the conversation herself this time.

"Michael? What's going on?" she asked knowing full well that she'd get one of his generic answers.

"Going on?" he said not taking his eyes of the screen yet. She sometimes thought he might even be timing when to look up, when to answer.

"What does a person of the past mean?" she looked at him intently and he finally looked up.

"We've recruited someone you know." He merely replied.

"Hmm right and who might this person be?" she wasn't really getting anything from him.

He paused and looked at her for a moment. "James." It was all he said before turning back to the screen in front of him.

_James!_ Her mind was racing a mile a minute. She hadn't thought of him for a very long time. She didn't understand. How did he get here? Why now and why did they keep him?

"James?" she finally replied. Michael what is going on?" she asked a bit more concerned. There were always hidden reasons in Section.

"Nothing. Nikita I have work to do." There it was again, the you-are-excused line.

After a final look she left his office.

She wasn't called for missions until the following week. Not uncommon in Section but under the circumstances it could mean something.

As she walked closer to the table for the briefing she noticed someone talking to Madeline. The silhouette of the man was very familiar to her. Suddenly chills ran up and down her spine. From the corner of her eye she also saw another familiar figure approaching. Michael. He took a look at her before he sat down in his usual seat at the table.

"Nikita," she heard her name called by Madeline.

She turned her attention back to Madeline, "yes?"

"I'm sure you remember James from a past life. He will be working on this mission with us. He has provided us with vital intel for this mission." After her signature smile and nod she took her seat at the table.

Nikita was now standing face to face with the person from her past. "Hello James." There was no reason to make this any more difficult on herself. She'd face bigger things before.

"Nikita, I've looked forward to this moment for the past two years now." he seemed sincere, but she never knew with him.

"You have?" this certainly was a surprise to her. She wanted to ask more questions but Operations was starting his briefing.

It was more than just difficult for her to pay any attention to a word that was being spoken. She was more focused on the facial expressions and appearances at the table. James' was easy. She now really believed that he was happy to see her. Madeline, she was sure, was studying her every move. Michael was the one person she had a difficult time with. They did share their usual looks that they would have during briefings but other than that there seemed to be a blank stare. It was not like the stare he usually had, no this was different and it really scared her. She was convinced now more than ever that there was a deeper meaning hidden beneath all this.

After the briefing she went to get her inventory. James walked with her.

"You look amazing Nik," he said softly. _Nik?_ He was using the nickname he had given her in a previous life.

She tried to act cool about it. "Thanks."

He came closer to her. "I've missed you so much. You can't even imagine how I felt when I found out you were still alive."

She was feeling the heat. She knew she was being closely watched so she tried to not say anything that could be used against her. She also didn't know what to do with James…how she felt about him after all these years.

She had hated every second of being in Section. After a while she basically learned to live with that. Now that she saw James here in Section, it rattled her. It threw everything off balance.

"Let's go," she heard Michael say behind her. It didn't escape his notice that Nikita was standing very close to James. "Mission's loading." He said as he walked away.

Something about that didn't sit quite well with Nikita. He wasn't just being his usual quiet self; he was going out of his way to not interact with her at all. She gave Walter a smile before she left with James in tow.

The mission went on flawlessly and the team returned to Section. As they unloaded Michael informed the group that they were on standby before leaving to debrief Operations. With nothing to do Nikita set out to find Walter and distance herself from James, who luckily was needed elsewhere in Section.

"Hey sugar, how'd it go?" Walter said as he looked up from his little project in front of him.

"All right I suppose," she replied as she did her usual walk of his little section.

"What's the matter? Something you want to talk about?" he had heard about James but wasn't going to ask unless she wanted to talk about it.

"What isn't?" she replied. "There's this person…someone I knew before and he's here now. Does that happen a lot in Section?"

He seemed to think about that for a second. "Not that I know of. You think you're being set up?" he knew of the friction between her and Operations.

"Yes…no…I just really don't know anymore. It's just I think I'm actually happy to see him and I don't want to." She trailed off.

"I see…this person mean something to you?" He had that twinkle in his eye.

"Hmm, yeah a long while ago." She had always felt she could tell Walter everything and trust him to not tell anyone. "But that was a long time ago and a lot has changed now…I've changed."

"Hmm. I see. So what now?"

"I wish I knew Walter. There's no way I could just sit down and talk to him I mean this is Section. There has to be a reason for his coming here."

"Yeah, you could be right. Have you talked to Michael?" he also knew of the whatever that something was between her and Michael.

"Michael? No, not really." she said as she turned around. "See you Walter."

"Anytime sugar."

Instead of seeing Michael again she went to Birkoff.

"Hey Birkoff, you busy?"

"Yes." He was busily typing away on the multiple computers surrounding him. "I'm looking at the intel you guys brought back."

"Oh anything interesting?" she had to feign interest if she was going to get him to help her.

"Nothing that would interest you. What can I do for you?" he asked wanting to go back to work.

"I need a favor."

"I don't do favors and that last favor you asked of me is still hanging over my head. So no thanks."

"Birkoff please. It's important."

"Ha," he scoffed. "Isn't it always with you?"

"I suppose so. Ok thanks Birkoff," she said as she pretended to walk away. If all else failed she knew to just play on his feelings. She didn't enjoy doing this but for now she had no choice.

Naturally it worked, "ok what do you need?"

James' file was impressive just as Madeline had told her. Still there was something that was off. She found a lot of information about his life prior to Section that she already knew. It was certainly thorough and quite painful to look through but she wanted to know why he was here and if she had to read through every painful detail then so be it.

A/N: should prob let ppl know that future chapters will not be this long, this is an exception I usually write short chapters and I always finish my stories. Ok it might take me a long time to finish a fic but it gets done lol.

_**Review PLS!!**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: I don't own em…**_

_**A/N: I forgot to mention this before, besides some main story points, the rest of the story is definitely AU. Well here we go, enjoy!**_

"_Nik?It's time to go." _

"_Wait! I can't do it…I can't leave her here. She'll…he'll kill her."_

"_You can't save her. There's no time…Nik! She doesn't want to be saved!"_

"_No! NO let me go we can't leave her here. NO!"_

Nikita abruptly woke up and was sitting straight up in her bed. She quickly scanned the room and realized it was a dream.

"It was a dream," she said aloud as if to assure herself that it was really a dream. "It wasn't real." She lied to herself, she knew it was real…it had happened. Seeing James at the briefing earlier in the day had triggered many repressed memories to resurface, however painful.

The ring of her cell phone disrupted her thoughts about James and replaced them with the thought of seeing Michael again.

"Hello," she answered.

"Josephine." His voice was indifferent as always.

She gave her reply before hanging up and springing into action. The mission would be challenging, she'd be dealing with both James and Michael.

_At the Section Briefing_

Nikita made it a point to either look down at the table or at Operations. She wasn't ready for James' inquisitive looks and Michael's…well she wasn't sure what he wanted from her anymore.

"That will be all. Mission loads in 30mins, inventory is on your panels," Operations said as he finished up.

_Off to Walter then, _Nikita thought to herself.

Just when she reached Walter, Nikita noticed James was right behind her…as was Michael.

Disregarding Michael's presence James began to speak to Nikita, "I wanted to stop by last night but I figured you might want some time to yourself before I do."

"Oh?" she replied as she glanced over to Michael's direction who was seemingly not interested in them, she knew better however.

James continued, "Yeah, considering the last time we saw each other…it was hard for me too Nik."

There it was again. The use of her nickname.

"Mission loads in 10…make it out alive…then we'll talk." And with that she walked away to the exit point without giving him a chance to respond.

James was now left behind with Walter and Michael.

"Here. Click this once and the timer is set. Click it again and you have 10 seconds to clear yourself out of reach before it goes off." Walter explained to James. "And if you hurt Nikita I'll make sure there's a glitch in your equipment. See you later." He said as he dismissed him and moved over to Michael. James merely smirked before he left.

"Michael…" Walter began when he stopped. The look on Michael's face suggested to not getting involved. After a final look Michael left.

The trip to the drop off location seemed to take longer than it really was. When they finally reached their destination the first team went in. Michael and Nikita were supposed to bring in a woman named Samantha Peters. James was on the second team, he would have to wait for team one's signal to go in. While he was waiting in the van he tried to get Birkoff to talk about Nikita. Birkoff wasn't giving him a lot of information that he didn't already know.

He started to get frustrated. "So is she seeing anyone then?"

"I don't really think you should be asking _me _these questions." He paused as he heard Michael's voice in his earpiece. "Copy that Michael. James, you're up."

"Yeah, thanks Birkoff," he said referring to Birkoff's lack of cooperation rather than the mission go ahead.

Back in the van Birkoff was updating Michael and Nikita. "Ok James is in place. Nikita, target is in place…go now."

Nikita nodded in agreement to Michael. "Ok Birkoff, I see her." She turned back to Michael however, "it seems she has company…Birkoff?"

"No, no that's not possible. Her husband's out of town and she doesn't socialize. The profile…"

"Well I'm telling you Birkoff, she's not alone. I'm going to distract her companion while Michael and James extract Samantha."

"Michael?" Birkoff asked.

Being team leader he would have to ok if they were to go ahead. "Go." He said to Nikita.

Birkoff contacted James with the new plan. "James, move to beta point. You and Michael will extract the target while Nikita distracts the companion."

"Birkoff, I can take him out. If Nikita goes in she jeopardizes the mission." he replied instead.

"Stand by James," Birkoff said while he conferred with Michael, strategically James was right he noticed as he clicked away at this computer. "Michael, we risk the target if Nikita goes in. James can take him out while you and Nikita get the target."

After a brief silence he heard Michael agreeing. "James, go now," Birkoff said.

James moved closer and took out the companion, soon after he saw Michael and Nikita with the target, his plan had worked.

Back at Section the team was greeted by Operations when they got out. "Good work. James, I need you in Madeline's office immediately. Michael, you're needed at Comm."

Nikita stopped Michael as he began to walk away. She made sure James and Operations were out of sight when she approached him.

"Michael," she said again.

He turned to face her, "yes?"

"We didn't stick to the profile."

"What is your point Nikita?" he replied knowing full well what she going at.

"My point? Normally Sections doesn't want operatives deviating from the profile. It is certainly not encouraged when it does occur. Why is Operations here congratulating us on a job well done?"

"The mission went according to plan; some minor adjustments were made out of necessity."

"Minor? Michael, James acted as the team leader. I want to know why this is being overlooked."

"He didn't take over anything that I didn't allow." He gave her a final look before he left for Comm.

Frustrated as ever Nikita set out to find Birkoff. She wanted to see if he knew anything else about James before going home.

With Birkoff too busy to talk to her, Nikita gave up for the time being and went home. She was barely there for 5 minutes when there was a knock at the door. She looked to see who it was when she tensed up as she saw James standing outside her door.

She hesitantly opened the door, "James? What are you doing here?"

"I did what you said, I made it out alive so I'm here. Can I come in Nik?"

_Ugh, you need to stop saying that, _she thought to herself. "Sure, come in. Can I get you anything, water, tea?"

"No, I'm fine." He said as he walked over to the sofa. When he sat down he motioned for her to join him, "care to sit with me?"

Her heart was beating a mile a minute, "James…I don't think this is good idea…"

"Come on Nik, I just asked you to sit down. Nothing serious."

"All right nothing serious," she liked that. Maybe he didn't want to revisit the past like she thought he did. Maybe he just wanted to talk, she could do that. "So what brings you here?" she asked again.

"I just want us to be ok. I want you to know that I'm not expecting anything. I know I came on strong the other day at Section, but I realize that this has to be difficult for you."

"I'm just surprised to see you here…here at Section." She'd wanted to ask him how he had ended up at Section and now seemed like the perfect time. "What did you do to get here?"

James was quiet for a few seconds before he began, "I got mixed up with the wrong people." He said smiling innocently. "I didn't know what they were capable of when I first started to hang with them. Finally one day it just went sour…an innocent woman died…I was blamed and even though I didn't kill her with my own hands I could have stopped it and I didn't. I'm to blame Nik…it was my fault." He ended his story there and was waiting for Nikita's response.

She wasn't sure what to say at first, "So she was innocent?"

"Yeah, we were trying to rob this liquor store and it just went bad…" his voice trailed off.

Nikita was lost for words. "James…I…"

"It's ok. I know you, I know that you can't believe me when I say that I'm truly sorry for what I've done…I never meant to hurt her."

"I believe you," she replied. "There's one thing I don't understand though. I remember Madeleine saying that you had some intell for us. Red Cell intell. How did you get a hold of that?"

James looked momentarily distraught. "That was just something I picked up. Listen I'm sorry but I have to leave now. I just remembered I needed to do something…sorry I'll catch you later then?"

She was positive now that James was hiding something from her, "what's wrong James?" she asked trying to make him speak but he was already up and walking to the door.

"It's nothing really…we'll talk later ok? Goodnight Nik," he said as he opened the door to let himself out. "It was great talking to you again, I missed that." With a final smile he closed the door.

"Yeah, it was great," Nikita said to a closed door.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: I don't own em…**_

**_A/N: thanks for reading! I love that you like it…once again the story will not follow the series storyline wise, but will make some references here and there…_it's fanfiction! Lol….**

"This is unacceptable. I want him cancelled." Operations relayed to Madeline at one of their meetings in the perch. "This was an easy task; I will not tolerate mistakes of this nature."

"I disagree," Madeline calmly replied. She had a way of maintaining her calm in almost every situation. "Under the circumstances he has done very well. Keep in mind that James has been on an accelerated training course. I agree his slip of tongue is unfortunate but we can use this. Considering all variables I think we should proceed. The contingency plan is in place."

Operations regarded Madeline's opinion very highly; in fact she was the only person he trusted. So it was only natural for him to accept her advice, "very well, but keep in mind if he fails again it will be on you Madeline."

"Of course," she again replied calmly and left to her office.

The scene below was one of preparation. Michael and his team were loading for a new mission. The target of their previous mission, Samantha Peters, gave up vital intel on Red Cell, as was expected. Madeline's method of convincing was quite effective.

The addition to the team consisted of James. Nikita couldn't make out whether this bothered Michael or not. He seemed more pensive than usual but she could be mistaken. Frankly she was thoroughly confused. He had put great effort into bringing her back, yet he remained distant. Sometimes she thought she could have been more approachable after Jurgen died, but she was just not able to do so.

Section One made her suspicious of everything and everyone. Could she trust Michael? She wanted to. As she studied her panel she noticed she was back up and James was set in her place. She was never back up.

"Michael? Why am I back up?" she asked him with a tone of surprise in her voice.

As usual he faced her, remained silent for about 3 seconds and then answered her. "We decided James would be a better fit after we reviewed the panel." It was not what she wanted to hear.

"I don't understand why am I even on this mission? What are you not telling me?"

"We leave in 10, get ready." He finally said. He could tell she was not pleased but didn't push the matter further.

Walter who was witnessing all this tried to calm Nikita down. "Hey Sugar, here's your inventory."

"Doesn't look like I need it Walter." She replied annoyed. "There is no purpose in me going on this mission. Does this ever happen, do you know?"

"Sugar, don't take it personal. That's just the way this place is. At least you'll be out of harms way."

"Yeah, like Section cares whether I live or die."

"Well I do."

"Thanks Walter," she said as she left for van access.

Nikita was right, her presence at the mission was pointless were it not for something that happened when the first and second team were retreating. Unexpected hostiles suddenly appeared from all sides. Nikita asked Michael to go in but she was refused.

"Michael, I'm going in."

"Nikita stay where you are." He told her.

She didn't understand what he was doing, "Michael, the team is getting slaughtered. I can't just sit here and do nothing."

"We've got it covered, stay put." He replied before breaking contact.

She had a clear view of what was going on from her point and for some reason she listened to him, she stayed put. She saw two men go down but they were quickly carried away by two other men from the team. Finally she spotted James. He was under fire but he was rescued and let away from the scene by none other than Michael…_Michael?_ She thought.

It wasn't unusual to be rescued by a teammate but this scene was all too familiar to her. While en route back to Section she couldn't help but think that there was some kind of deliberation involved in all that happened.

As they arrived back at van access the usual procedure took place. Operations was ready to get his initial debrief by Michael. This time however both James _and_ Michael were debriefing him. As she stood behind them she did not know what to think or how to act. James, in the short amount of time that he had been at Section, seemed to become somewhat of a favorite of Operations. He could do no wrong apparently.

She walked away feeling confused and alarmed at the same time. After returning her inventory back to Walter she skipped their usual chat and went to Michael's office.

She walked in without knocking as she often did and sat down. He wasn't preoccupied on his computer so he looked her head on. She waiting a few seconds and he understood that he'd have to secure the room for her to begin talking.

Not a second after he had typed in his code she began. "Michael, I don't understand. What is going on?" She was well aware that there was no point in this conversation as he wouldn't give her a straight answer or any answer that she could use for that matter.

"What do you mean?" he replied as she had anticipated.

"Don't do this Michael. I know there is something going on that I should not know about, _as usual, _she added in her head. "There was no need for me to be on this mission, you know that as well as I do."

"I disagree."

His answer hurt her more than usual. She knew he was hiding something and she also knew that it had to involve her. "Michael, why did you bring me back?"

"That has nothing to do with this."

"Really?" she replied and stood up. "Michael…sometimes I wish I would've never replied to you. It was a mistake coming back here…for nothing worthwhile." She left to debrief so she could return to her apartment as soon as possible.

She didn't notice Michael getting up from his chair and follow her with his eyes till she was out of sight. "Be patient Nikita," he said aloud to her retreating figure.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: I don't own em…**_

It had been three weeks now since James had come back into her life and Nikita had not been herself ever since. Things at Section were the same but it was the little things that got to her. Michael was even more distant than usual and James was making every effort to talk to her every time he saw her and would sometimes even stop by her apartment.

This behavior seemed to be condoned which was what confused Nikita even more. James made no attempt of hiding his attraction to Nikita. Yet this was completely ignored by both Madeline and Operations. Considering all this Nikita proceeded with caution. She would never accept any dinner invitations but wouldn't run away from James either whenever he approached her at Section. Seeing him was still difficult at times but since she still didn't know what Section was planning she went along with it.

For now it didn't matter to Nikita that James' story was full of holes. It didn't matter that she knew she was being set up for something. All she wanted right now was piece and quiet. So she would go on her missions and perform well. She would debrief to Michael and not care that he was most likely part of the lie, part of whatever it as Operations and Madeline had concocted this time. She also knew she was lying to herself but as Walter once told her, you have to know when to lie to yourself to maintain your sanity…stay alive. So when James stopped by again one night after the mission, she planned to do just that…lie to herself.

As soon as she heard the knock on her door she knew it was James. Before she would expect to see Michael but he had stopped coming right about the time James showed up…not that she cared she reminded herself.

They sort of had a routine whenever he stopped by. James had made himself quite at home already. He'd go to the refrigerator and get the drinks or set the tea. There'd be some music in the background and they'd sit down and talk. It was mostly about their life before Section. Life in Section was not a favorite topic of James so Nikita for now didn't want to push him on that. She also told herself she didn't care.

"Remember that night I stole that blue car and we went for a ride?" James started when they were settled down.

"Yeah, you told me it was yours. We almost got caught that night."

"Right, by the way sorry about that. Better late than never eh? But do you remember what we talked about?"

"Well I think we talked about a lot of things. As I recall we stayed up all night."

"I told you I would never let anyone hurt you. I also asked you to marry me…" he stopped to look at her. "You accepted…"

She looked down not wanting to face him. "That was a long time ago; we were different people back then. I was different." Her thoughts immediately went to Michael. How would he react to this news? Would it be news to him? His behavior towards her as of late suggested to her he already knew.

"I think about that every night Nik. It's what keeps me going. Dreaming…hoping that one day you'll accept when I ask you. Has it been too long? Has too much happened?"

Nikita was feeling cornered now, she didn't want to do this at all. "James…I can't. That part of my life is gone."

"Is it because of what happened with Vic? Listen we did the best we could in that situation."

She felt her anger stir up again. Vic had always been in the back of her mind. "The best was not enough. He killed Andie and he got away with it no questions asked."

"Wait, you don't know? Vic is dead. He died during a drug deal gone awry."

She really didn't know and her face showed it. "He's dead? Oh…" she was lost for words again.

"Yeah, I think it was after you…well _died._ It was kind of bittersweet I suppose." He moved closer to where she was sitting. "Listen, we don't have to go fast. We can move things slow. There's no reason for you to trust me at all, still I hope you do."

She eyed him as he slowly started to caress her hands. A part of her was happy to see him. On the other side she was scared of falling for him and ending up hurt. She could take things slow as he mentioned. Slow, that was the way it would be. Slow and on her terms. The next thing she knew they were in her bedroom and she found herself lost in his brown eyes.

She woke up the next morning and noticed she was alone. Her heart sank for a split second but then she noticed the shower was running. He was still there. She then felt guilt. As usual her thoughts went to Michael, more than once had she tried to stop her feelings for him but she just wasn't successful. She'd always worry what he was thinking about, what he was doing, if he was thinking about her too? Things had changed though; James had come back to her.

She remembered his words last night. They'd take things slow. That didn't work out. Everything she had once felt for him came rushing back with the first kiss. Did she still feel that way about him? She couldn't answer that. Was it just because she couldn't have Michael…did she settle for James? Her thoughts were interrupted by James himself, he had finished his shower.

"Morning. Hope I didn't wake you." He said as he moved closer to her side of the bed and sat down.

"No, it's fine." She said eying him. "James, just tell me right now if something is going on."

He opened his mouth to reply when her phone rang. They both knew who it was. "Go ahead answer, he's waiting."

"Ya, so am I James." She then reached for her phone. "I gotta go in. They'll probably call you in as well so I'll see there then." She said as she got up to dress herself.

There was no reply on James' part, he just sat on the bed watching her dress and finally walk out the door. "I'm sorry it had to be this way Nik. I really am." She wasn't there to hear this but that was his intention.

The first person Nikita went to when she got to Section was Birkoff. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Nikita hey, Michael wants to see you in his office."

"Oh, what's up?"

"Dunno, I just do what they tell me to do."

She nodded and left to see Michael making sure to knock this time before she entered. It had to be all professional now she reasoned to herself. She couldn't do this _thing_ with James while trying to get Michael to open up to her.

"You called?" she said nonchalantly.

"Yes. Sit down." He only said.

She notices he didn't secure the room as he would have with most of their conversations. It had to be all professional then she realized. She didn't speak again until he did.

"There has been increased Red Cell activity in Northern Europe. A team will be assembled to deal with this."

"Why isn't Operations briefing us on this?"

"That is not important. Madeline will fill you in on the specifics for this mission. You'll leave in an hour."

"Who's on the team?" she asked expecting the worst.

He paused, "It will be James and you."

She raised her eyebrow as there were bells and whistles going of in her head. "Just us? Is there anything else I need to know Michael?" She knew he would never tell her unless she asked him.

"You'll be portraying Sergei and Rona Helbinski. That'll be all."

"Michael, he can't be ready for this kind of mission already." She was trying her best to conceal her concern but wasn't sure she was successful at that.

"He'll have to be." He was done briefing her and made it known.

She got the hint and left for Madeline's office.


End file.
